Jeff Curto

Title Screen for the Psychometry iPad app- Carol Golemboski Photographer Carol Golemboski has taken the idea of an electronic book – or any sort of electronic presentation of photography, farther than any I’ve yet seen. Her iPad app Psychometry combines images, text, video, interactive panoramas, extensive background on how the images were produced, a virtual darkroom experience and myriad other amazing details. It is like a book in that it’s a presentation of Carol’s work, but it’s unlike any book you’ve ever seen because it’s so comprehensive, engaging and filled with so many different ways of showing us the photographs and helping Read more »

I had lots and lots of great ideas from podcast listeners about Camera Position 125, “Thinking in Monochrome.” Several listeners suggested a digital tool that I’d not thought of before and that was to set the camera for B&W, but to also set “Raw + JPEG” as the file format. Other listeners talked about the great options provided by electronic viewfinders on some cameras that allow you to actually see the framed scene in black and white. And that reminded me of the monochrome viewing filter I recently unearthed as I was packing up my office for a move. For Read more »

I grew up making black and white photographs. It’s what I love the most about photography and the way I have long thought about the photographic image. But the digital revolution has spawned a dilemma; the digital camera sees in color, and I have to shift my mind to think in black and white. I’m intrigued by the difference in mindset that happens when you have a camera that you know can only take black and white images and when you have one that you know can make both color and black and white. For more information or to listen Read more »

We all try to spend time with photographs by photographers whose work we admire. We spend time trying to figure out how to emulate their work, then produce work that is similar in style to what they do. But here is the rub; our problem is that once we get to a point where those photographs are good, solid derivatives of what our photographic influences are, what’s next? How do we make our pictures so that they are different in style and substance from those who came before us? My friend, the great contemporary photographer Arno Raphael Minkkinen, has nicely Read more »

We look at 19th, 20th and some 21st century portraits and see if we can draw some conclusions about what makes a good portrait photograph. We also see if we can draw some parallels with the words and ideas of the Transcendentalist thinkers and writers Emerson and Thoreau and see if they can help us illuminate what portraiture means. To listen to more of Jeff Curto’s podcasts please visit: http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com

Is anatomy destiny? This class session looks at women’s photography by examining the work of various female photographers as well as by looking at the bigger issue of whether the photographer’s gender changes the images that are made. To listen to more of Jeff Curto’s podcasts please visit: http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com

One of the great characters in the history of the medium, Alfred Stieglitz was also one of the most influential photographers and promoters of photography of the 20th century. In this class, we look at Stieglitz and the group of photographers and other artists he gathered around him. We also try to examine why what Stieglitz did and what he said were often two different things. To listen to more of Jeff Curto’s podcasts please visit: http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com

This is the first part of a two-part overview of the history of photography; a sort of “condensed” history in order to get a sense of the medium’s “who, what, when and where.” This week, we cover from 1800 B.C. to 1888 A.D. To listen to more of Jeff Curto’s podcasts please visit: http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com

Stop-motion photography as practiced by Edweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey and others is the topic of this class session. These scientific experiments ultimately led to the development of motion pictures by Edison. This “studio” recording of the class session uses a video format so the full-motion of movies played within the presentation can be seen. To listen to more of Jeff Curto’s podcasts please visit: http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com